Colonial went with Mr. Love, easily Fort Worth's most marketed celebrity chef, to cater and handle all of the food places on the grounds for the tournament. It was a coup for Love to land the tournament, and vice versa. It was also a giant dud.

Love's first run as the primary food provider to the tournament was marred by long lines, food shortages, and wildly average food. Or food typical of a sporting event, not typical of Tim Love.

The problem is, when you are Tim Love, the expectations go up. It was nearly impossible to look anywhere on Colonial's grounds during the four days and not see the Tim Love name and his logo: "Eat, Drink and Live Well."

Regardless of the cute name you put on it, it's still a hot dog wrapped in tin foil. It's a chicken sandwich wrapped in tin foil. It's nachos. No amount of marketing is going to change those realities. It's still mass produced food for people who need to eat something quickly in order to absorb the alcohol they are consuming.

No one attending the Colonial expected Lonesome Dove Bistro cuisine at the 13th hole. Standing in line for 30 minutes to buy one beer is bad business. Standing in line for 45 minutes for some chips with cheese is horrible business.

No word if Love's contract with the tournament will be renewed. Having Fort Worth's most recognized chef splashed around the tournament was a nice touch, but if you can't get a drink and the wait for food is 30 minutes, and then it's cold when you eat it, who cares?

Colonial is better to line up a bunch of fryers and stock troughs with Bud Lite and Miller Lite than to have a repeat of this food fiasco again.

Next time at Colonial, patrons should be allowed to eat, drink and be well in a more timely manner.

Comments

I agree. The wait for a beer on #13 was at least 30-45 minutes. They need to have one specific line where it is "BEER ONLY and CASH ONLY". Also, people were getting bogged down by using their Mastercard (a corporate sponsor offering 10% off) that it was holding up the line.

From the looks of all Tim Love's marketing material around the tournament one would have thought he was the main sponsor rather than Crowne Plaza. This guy has an ego bigger than Texas without the food to back it up. The food was below mediocre and the lines were even worse. I've had better food at a local mom and pop gas station from the refrigerator section. I'm so over this guy and his subpar food and enormous ego. Heard too many things about how he's a self centered (fill in the blank) who treats his staff poorly. If Colonial renews his contract there needs to be an upheaval.

From the looks of all Tim Love's marketing material around the tournament one would have thought he was the main sponsor rather than Crowne Plaza. This guy has an ego bigger than Texas without the food to back it up. The food was below mediocre and the lines were even worse. I've had better food at a local mom and pop gas station from the refrigerator section. If Colonial renews his contract there needs to be an upheaval.

Not only were the food disappointing and the lines intolerable, but Tim Love mistreated and cheated volunteers. For many years, local high school booster clubs have staffed the Pavilion and kiosks around the course, in consideration for a small percentage of the concessionaire's gross revenues, plus tips. Those fundraising activities support too many worthwhile endeavors to list.

However, on Colonial Wednesday -- well after the volunteers started work on Monday -- Mr. Love informed the volunteers that they would not receive a percentage of the gross and limited their opportunities to earn tips. (No bar service, only food -- obviously a major reduction, given the event.) Nonetheless, he still expected the volunteers to provide food assembly, bar back, table busing and garbage disposal services (which generate no tips, but which they had willingly done in the past, in consideration for the other revenue streams). In addition, he and his staff (including his wife) verbally abused long-tenured (among other) volunteers, who had practical experience in successfully running Colonial concessions. A near walk-out ensued but was averted when Colonial officials intervened, without the celebrity chef's knowledge or consent. However, the bitterness remains.

I will be shocked if Colonial renews its contract with Mr. Love next year -- if it does, the tournament will find itself lacking the volunteer assistance that has made it successful for so many years. The celebrity chef may be a successful restaurateur (and maybe caterer), but he is not a competent concessionaire. In addition, he is a miserable human being, and his staff (and spouse) act accordingly.

Not only did TLC (Tim Love Catering)provide for the concessions in a poor way they also provided the banking of the stands in a horrendous fashion. As booster club members, we volunteer to work the colonial. We have full time jobs from which we take vacation time to arrive at check in by 7:00 am (usually took 45 minutes from parking, to catching the shuttle to "Frost Park", to walking to #3 hole to check in and then proceed to the assigned stand). On Colonial Wednesday, our volunteers stood around for nearly 3 hours past the 8:00 am opening time, waiting for the bank to show up with beginning cash and the POS (restaurant operating system)pads.
When the tournament began on Monday, pre-made food deliveries were made to our booth. By Tuesday, we were out of 2 menu items that did not get replaced until Thursday. By Wednesday night, the food that we still had, was from the same delivery we received Monday.
Nothing we sold was fresh, except the Chili Spiked Watermelon, when we stocked it. On Sunday, we received a delivery of a whole watermelon instead of the pre-portioned slices we had on Monday. Thurs and Friday, two very busy days, we had no breakfast pastries from our menu. We received them about 3 pm on Sat.
On two days, Thursday and Friday, the banking system was so bad that we could not make change for our customers for over 1.5 hours. We could only take exact change, one's, five's and credit cards. We resorted to making change for our registers out of our tip jars.
We were also required to wear an apron advertising Tim Love Catering instead of our organization shirts and spirit wear, as we have for many years. Many who were not aware we were ALL volunteer were reluctant to tip Tim Love Catering.
Tim Love Catering was not interested in taking care of the concession booths with freshly made food or if we had our menu items at all. His arrogance was astounding. If the patrons of the Colonial only knew how much he did not care that the food was 3 days old, to his knowledge and disregard.
So, if you ordered a $6 pimento cheese sandwich on Wednesday, know that it was made on Monday, wrapped in cellophane and sold to you under the disguise of being fresh.

I've been coming to Colonial for more than 33 years. The disappointing concessions, long waits, no food, bad food took away from a great golf tournament. Save the pimento cheese for Augusta National (much better at half the price). Elk, bee-hive cheddar sausage ? Isn't there a limit as to how many things you can put cabbage on ? Bye Mr. Tim Love, hope to see some real golf tournament food next year.

My husband and I have been taking our kids to the Colonial for several years. We loved the family friendly atmosphere that Fort Worth inspires and was always felt at the Colonial. This year, it lost that vibe. The push was not about golf, family, Fort Worth, or the Colonial being part of the PGA tour, but about advertising Tim Love and Tim Love Catering. I think the focus was lost of what Fort Worth is and what the Colonial is. This could have been a great new venture and partnership had the food been more normal and fresh.
Our family missed the made to order grilled burgers, hot dogs, etc. that were replaced by the pre-packaged food. Apparently, the corporate suites stocked fresh food but damned be the fans on the course, who were out of luck and left with food that was less than fresh and contained no love in its making.
Come on Colonial, get back to the basics. Don't try to be like everyone else. Go back to what made you, you. People want freshly made, edible food, in a family friendly atmosphere that is Fort Worth. We are high class with out the pretension. Take it from a Golf and Colonial fan. This experiment was a mistake, a monumental failure with the fans.

Did Tim Love have a one year contract or 2 or 3 years? (Rhetorical question only because the club may not have the opportunity to renew an existing contract.) I do not know anything about volunteers but I do know that volunteers at Ranger games and other food service areas are inexperienced and cost the vendors sales. They are consistently slow and ill-prepared to count money, make change or total up bills. Notwithstanding those comments in defense of Tim Love, it is curious whether Tim Love knew that volunteers got a % of the sales. If he did not know that and if he bid or budgeted without that knowledge, who can blame him. I guess that in fairness to all, one should ask how colonial feels about this... did CCC make more sales than ever; were the lines totally unexpected; did Tim Love substantially out produce his predecessors; and among other matters, is this Tim Love's fault, the volunteer's fault, CCC's fault or a failure to have proper point of sale cash and credit computers or is this one big "much ado about very little". Finally, I would agree that the service was poor, that the volunteers were slow and that the point of sale computers were inadequate - whether the hardware or the volunteer. I am not in marketing but I too would have called it a "hotdog" and let the purchaser say
"how nice, this is split in the middle to provide proper cooking". throughout". "wow, that is a unique chicken sandwich... I like the sauce". or .."I prefer regular margaritas -- I hope he changes them next year". I hope he will have a beer only line next year so that I can guzzle faster".. Just sayin" I am a Tim Love fan but I think my comments are within reason for a non-fan .. and indeed there are some. As for TCU games, it is strange the strength of one or two squeaking voices lubricated to honesty by a little alcohol. Tim Love generally gets thinks done in spite of his nay-sayers and jealous competitors. I am thinking that I need a nice party catered... who should I call ... I should have run this through a filter but I did not. Contact me.. jimshaw@jimshawlaw.com